Bloody Roar 4
Bloody Roar 4 is the fifth instalment of the Bloody Roar series released in 2003 by Hudson and Eighting. It's the first instalment to receive a Mature Rating for realistic blood and violence and the first to utilize voice acting in cutscenes.__TOC__ Plot "Throughout time, life forms on this planet have evolved and prospered. Some life forms do not evolve, but what is the cause behind the choices on who evolves and who dies? Gaia is a life form that is the entire earth, and it has a self-balancing nature and it is a way that the environment can be controlled. Mankind has taken on many forms though Gaia, though natural selection, as well as the Unborn: the life forms that would have survived if they evolved. Exactly one year ago, during the X-Genome Code Incident, there were many riots on earth by beasts that were not in the XGC. Soon it all ended and no one knows the true cause of it, but people began to blame it on a Stone Seal. The seal is locked away, but the riots have increased even more so. What is the cause behind it all, and can this be stopped?" Gameplay This instalment brings some drastic changes in the gameplay mechanics of the Bloody Roar series. The Beast Gauge still remains in the series, which allows the player to switch to a Beast Form. However, unlike previous instalments, the Beast Gauge can now be charged up with the Charge Power, by maintaining the Beast button, at the expense of health. In addition, characters can still Beastorize without the Beast Gauge being filled up completely. The Beast and Health gauges are now intertwined, if his health meter is completely depleted, the player will automatically transform himself into his Beast form and fight with his Beast Meter as his, now, Health meter for the remainder of the round. In the same way, if the Beast Meter is empty during the Beast form, the fighter will automatically come back to his human form (if his Health meter is not empty too) without having to take a Guard Breaking attack from his opponent like in the previous games. The Hyper Beast Mode returns also but can be attained differently than the previous games. This time, the fighter has to be in human form then uses the Charge Power until he spends all the remaining health. Once done, the fighter will transform into his Hyper Beast Form and remains in this form until the end of the round. A new Career Mode allows player to take one character through a legion of matches. By winning matches, players can obtain 'DNA Points' which can be used to purchase ability enhancements such as strength and defense increase. It is even possible to purchase new moves for the selected character as well as use moves used by other characters, changing the flow of the character altogether. The character selected in Career mode can be used in normal play by pressing L1 to switch to the character's 'Career' mode. Hidden characters can be unlocked by achieving a certain number of DNA Points. Game Features *Arcade *Time Attack *Versus *Training *Sparring *Survival *Com Battle *Career *Options Characters & Locations | |} Reception Bloody Roar 4 received generally mixed reviews from critics. On Metacritic , Bloody Roar 4 holds a rating of 59%, based on 25 reviews. The game has sold 90 000 copies around the world and outside Japan http://www.vgchartz.com/game/221/bloody-roar-4, the lowest sales in the series. It's biggest competitor around it release date, Tekken 4, has sold 3.44 millions of copies http://www.vgchartz.com/game/2345/tekken-4. Douglass C. Pery from IGN reviews Bloody Roar 4 as a decent 3D fighting game to please a hardcore gamer casual for a day or two but the stagnant ongoing series is definitely in the second tier of fighters, way below Sega's, Namco's and Temco's seminal series, and it's seriously getting old and tired. He concludes : "The lack of depth and subtlety and the emphasis on the offensive, rather than the defensive, puts this squarely two notches below the best in the genre." Killy, from Jeuxvideo.com , reviews with a "16/20" Bloody Roar 4 as an alternative to typical fighting games even if it is short in innovations. Greg Kavashkin from Gamespot says that "Bloody Roar 4 is a predictable follow-up to a series that's never aimed particularly high". The principals negative points are mostly the poor and inane dialogue "The dialogue is all dubbed in English and is poorly translated, but it can be entertaining if for no other reason than its sheer absurdity" (Gamespot) and the major change on life/beast dynamic "All this is a strange dynamic that's not necessarily an improvement over previous Bloody Roars, in which you could only stay in beast form for a limited amount of time." (Gamespot) Promotion For the promotion of Bloody Roar 4, Yuko Ogura a japanese actress, singer and model lent her image for a cat-themed photoshoot. 103_23068_02.jpg 103_23068_01.jpg P101016301.jpg 103_27408_yuukorin01.jpg 1B7FF8BC-BBCF-4269-ACD2-E916F61F1002.jpeg Packaging Artwork BR4JAPfront.jpg|Playstation 2 JAP Release BR4JAPback.jpg|Playstation 2 JAP Release (back) BR4NAfront.jpg|Playstation 2 NA Release BR4NAback.jpg|Playstation 2 NA Release (back) Official Artworks See: Bloody Roar 4 (official artwork) Trivia *Because of the introduction of Nagi's Beast Form, Uriko was changed to Uriko the Cat instead of Half Beast. *In April 2001, the Bloody Roar Official Japanese site launch a poll where fans were asked what Beast form they like to see. Among the top ten result number 1 was a Dragon, number 2 was a Bird and number 5 was a Fox. The poll can be assimilated to the origin of Ryoho, Reiji and Mana. Top ten: a Dragon, a Bird, the Four Symbol (Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger & Black Turtle), a Penguin, a Fox, a Bear, an Elephant (or a Mammoth), a Kangaroo, a Dinosaur (Tyrannosaurus) and a Snake. External Links *Bloody Roar 4: Technique (Japanese, archive) *Wikipedia: Bloody Roar 4 *FAQ on Game Radar *Quotes on GameFAQS Citations Category:Games Category:Bloody Roar 4